WMO retires three hurricane names after devastating 2024 season

HOUSTON — The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the group responsible for developing the list of names for tropical systems, has dropped three names following the 2024 season. B

Beryl, Helene, and Milton have all been retired, meaning those names will not reappear in six years when the list from 2024 is recycled. 

Hurricanes are named in alphabetical order, in lists that rotate every six years. After a hurricane season is over, the WMO looks back at each storm and the impacts it caused. 

Typically, if a storm is particularly destructive or deadly, the name is retired forever and replaced with a new name to be used when that list rotates back again in six years. So the list used last year for the 2024 season will appear again in 2030 without the names Beryl, Helene or Milton.

Beryl, Helene, and Milton will be replaced by the names Brianna, Holly, and Miguel when the list returns in 2030.  The retired names join a list of nearly 100 retired storm names that have been retired over the last few decades, such as Andrew, Katrina and Sandy.

Of course, in Houston, we are all familiar with Hurricane Beryl and the destruction it caused. Some neighborhoods were left without power for weeks, with 14 deaths being reported in the U.S. 

However, before Beryl made landfall in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane, it ravaged parts of the Caribbean as a much stronger Category 4 storm, making landfall in the Windward Islands. 

From there, it moved across Jamaica and the Yucatan before turning north. Throughout the Caribbean, dozens were killed and significant damage was reported.  Additionally, while over open water, Beryl became the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin on July 2, with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph.

Helene and Milton were much stronger when they made landfall in the U.S.  Helene was the strongest landfalling storm in the United States during the 2024 season, hitting Florida’s Big Bend Coast as a Category 4 storm. However, this landfall was quickly overshadowed by the prolific flooding that occurred throughout North Carolina and Tennessee.  In total, Helene was responsible for 249 deaths in the United States, with many areas still just beginning the recovery process.

Milton made landfall as a major Category 3 storm near Sarasota in October, leading to significant damage near the Tampa Bay area.  From there, the storm led to a prolific tornado outbreak across the entire peninsula, with a record breaking amount of tornado warnings issued for parts of the state.  In total, at least 23 deaths in Florida were attributed to the storm.